Color Portrait from Black & White Photo
 

I am working on an oil portrait that was commissioned from a black and white photograph. The woman died many years ago so the only photos I have are black and white. I know I shouldn't have said "I can do it", but I did. So now I find myself really struggling to make realistic flesh tones.

She is outside, wearing a turquoise dress and she had dyed blond hair. I was able to pull off the dress and hair but the skin is a muddy mess! I have searched the Internet and this forum for solutions. I found some suggestions for a limited palette (Venetian Red, Indian Red, Yellow Ocher, Raw Umber, Ivory Black & Flake White + Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin & Viridian Green).

But I am hoping to get an even simpler formulaic solution, like a flesh tones for dummies perhaps? I hope there might be a sure-fire paint by the numbers solution that will make a generally believable Caucasian blond female?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Lara

Lara, I work from B&W photos all the time, even if, as I take the photos myself I can see the colours at least once.

The B&W is a very good opportunity to work on tones. Can you post your reference? Has it got a good lighting for painting or is it just all grey?

My suggestion is to start by mixing white, alizarine and yellow ochre, grey it down with some viridian and just put some brush marks on!
Mix your colours with a palette knife and just compare them TONALLY with your reference. Remember that the forehead is cooler than the cheeks, so add alittle more viridian. Warm cheeks mixture by using pale yellow cadmium instead of ochre make shadows warmer too.
Squint and look for the tone, remember that it is as important as the colour, and colour photo provide very little information about tones!
You will see that once you have started putting paint on your canvas you will start seeing your photo in colour, and which mixture use will look obvious!

Don't despair, post your work here if you want and I will try to help.

Ilaria

Hi Lara,

I know you're getting ready for your cross country move and may not have a lot of time, but the best way to do this would be to find/hire a similar-looking model and photograph her in a similar setting.

The colors you're using are the ones I employ, so I congratulate you on your good instincts.

I generally start out with a yellow ochre and indian red and white in the light flesh. As the tones get darker I add raw umber to create a darker yellow and have less white. To all mixtures I'll add a neutral gray of the same value (made from black, white and umber) to decrease intensity where appropriate. Venetian red is added where more warmth is needed. The other colors are not used in the flesh save, for reflected lights.

You can see a picture of my palette arrangement here on Beth's website: http://www.ewschott-fineart.com/File...elsonSpec.html
I didn't want to post this picture without Beth's permission.

The above is a gross simplification of what I do. When I teach a class or workshop I demonstrate the preparation of my palette and it's practical usage for approximately twelve hours. If you think about it, color mixing consumes about half of the time you spend painting!

The bad news, as far as what you're asking here, is that my palette is able to traverse the broad range of all human complexions from albino through African American. The proportions vary according to each individual persons skin and the specific area you are painting. Once I know what value I want to mix and by asking myself if it's, more yellow or red and if it's more intense or neutral, I can arrive at the correct mixture. Unfortunately this doesn't help you out if you don't know what color to mix.

Therefore I agree with Michelle's suggestion but I would strongly suggest having this model sit for a color study from life. Don't fret the drawing in the study, just go for the color. Good luck.

Color Suggestions
 

Wonderful suggestions! I am always amazed by the wonderful resource this forum provides. I got the palette idea from Mr. Mattelson's post on this site so I can only give thanks--& take no credit. I have started using them this morning, and things are looking up. The grayed shadows are particularily helpful. She was turning bright orange, and the shadows were much too warm. The tone & value suggestions are beneficial too--thanks Ms. Turco.

I wish I had the forethought, or asked you all sooner, to have hired a model. That is probably the best solution. (thanks Michelle!) But you are right, I am out of time now, this has to be done by Friday.

Dear Lara,
you are very sweet: thank you, being called Miss sends a shiver along my spine!
I do not know about Marvin,whom I haven't had the pleasure to meet or to interact with on these pages, but I definetely prefer to be called Ilaria.
Hope your work is proceding well
I.

I'll go with Marvin. When I hear Mr. Mattelson I immediately think someone's calling my father and I'm in trouble again, something that would never happen here!

I'm glad we were able to help you out.

Marvin,
I am amazed. Do you actually use around 40 brushes? One for every premixed color +++.
I have read earlier about your strings of gray, yellow and red and find it useful to premix them.

I have made a gray scale of 10 steps and tubed them, am also planning on tubing yellow and reds.

But I have a hard time figuring out how much you have to mix on the palette.
When you gray down the different colors you must end up with more dots than there is space on the palette, or what? Could you show us a photo of your palette when working, please ??

I normally end up with 4-5 different areas of color that I adjust with small amounts of white or whatever needed.

Allan

I generally employ a separate brush for every value of each color I'm painting. When I'm painting flesh for example there are many hue and intensity shifts within each value. I would use one brush for each flesh value using a rag, not thinner, to wipe off any excess paint.

If I needed to paint a larger or smaller area of the same color I'd switch to a new brush. If I were to paint something that was a different color, say blue, I would use a new brush.

At the end of the day, if I'm laying color onto a new painting, I could use thirty brushes, give or take, to cover the variety of colors and values of each. If I'm working on a specific area later in the development of the painting I could use just five or six. I never use a brush to paint two different values of the same color or two different colors of the same value.

I have nine values of grey and each of my color strings, equally stepped, between black and white paint. I mix among the two red strings, the one yellow string and the gray string at each value. Again this is a gross simplification.

I'll post a picture of my palette the next time I paint flesh.

Hi All,

I just ran across this thread and found it interesting. I have completed a workshop with Marvin and have found his palette to be a life saver. Yes, we use alot of brushes. One for every size/value/chroma mixture. We do NOT use any solvents in our paintings so there is no constant rinsing of brushes when I change colors in turps that fume into my world. I keep the brush for next use in a tiered brush holder with value numbers on it to keep me organized. It's like playing a piano when I'm in a flow. Right now I'm painting a black Labrador dog. I've mixed up the values of B&W across my palette, with ultra marine blue, perm aliz, raw umber, and yellow ochre on the side to change the chroma of my grays to match what I see in my reference. WOW it's clean & easy. I'll post my palette layout when I get it mixed today if you'd like.